Death Parade - Reviews

So I found about Death Parade earlier this year around January when I went back into the anime life while on my break between semesters.  I saw the poster and thought that it had a cool name.  Upon reading the synopsis, I thought it would be interesting to watch.  However with my hectic school schedule, I couldn't dedicate enough time to watch.  Plus I also wanted to wait until the show finished before I watched.  Today I suddenly had the urge to watch it and I actually marathoned it the whole day and just finished it now.

Story

In this world, the souls of the dead are sent to a bar, pretty much Purgatory, where their souls will be judged by an arbiter.  The arbiter will have them play a game to see the soul's true nature in extreme conditions.  Once the game finishes the arbiter must decide whether the souls will be reincarnated or sent to a void.  With all that said, there's also a narrative, which I didn't expect.  One of the souls, Chiyuki, becomes somewhat of an assistant to an arbiter, Decim, in order to find her own memories.

It's a great concept for a show.  It's a psychological suspense that has you guessing how things will go down.  The show was really methodical but not in a slow sense.  If it were slow, they're be a lot of unnecessary extra content.  There was none of that, which kind of explains only 12 episodes.  However, it was quality over quantity.  One problem was that it was a bit too wordy and complex.  It somehow kind of added to much depth that would need more than 12 episodes to fully get into.

Animation

By far my most favorite aspect of the show.  The colors were beautifully done.  It was mostly a darker palette but it was matched with vibrant lively colors.  That contrast was a feast for my eyes.  I also loved how good looking the scenery was.  There was one beautiful scene done in the end in which a character ice skates.  It was just beautiful to watch and it had me feeling some sort of way.  Everything about the animation had everything that I like

Sound

One great soundtrack as well.  It was, for the most part, pretty deceiving of the true nature of the show.  While the show gets pretty heavy and dramatic with the theme, the music was pretty soothing.  It was the stereotypical lounge music/jazz you hear in movies and such.  The opening is a testament to that.  It was upbeat and had a pop sound that totally threw me off at first.

Characters

They were good, not great though.  There was a decent amount of development especially Decim and obviously Chiyuki.  I say obviously for Chiyuki because she's a blank space and if it were to be bad or good, she'd develop.  Decim also changes in the way in which he does his judgements.  As for recurring characters they didn't really show much and were just kinda there to move the story along.  One of the great senses of development came from one-off characters who were to be judged.  They go from 0-100 in a short time from finding out how they died to what happens when put in an extreme situation.  This just get crazy with them.  The problem for is that just not a whole lot of development for me, which is probably because it was only 12 episode.

Overall

Did I enjoy it?  Yes I did.  It was a great suspense show that had me wanting to watch more and more, which is wy I ended up watching the whole thing in a day.  It was also partly because I just loved looking at it as well.  The things that happens and the things that happens to these people just were shocking but I still had to watch.  It also gets you thinking a bit too which is also pretty great.

it's a different kind of anime ... good idea . show us how we should look and judje in a different way . i liked it .

Death Parade isn't good. Take a little bit of Hell Girl and add a drop of Twighlight Zone ripoff, and this is what you have. For a series so hyped up when it aired, it didn't live up to it.

The philosophical points are underdeveloped and flawed. The psychological aspects are aimed solidly at people who don't know psychology even on an amateur level. There is no real depth, just a pretense of depth. But hey, that opening is amazing. Seriously, the opening of the show is amazing. It'll have you singing "boom boom boom" like a moron, and loving the hell out of it.

Still, for something so pretentious, you know the whole "dealing with death" and "afterlife stuff", it sure doesn't delve into the meat of the matter very well. The problem with the show is that it really can't decide what it wants to be, to explore, and to develop. It ends up being pulled in many directions, and not really delivering on any of them.

This may seem like a harsh criticism, especially because I actually had some fun watching it. But seriously, it is for the younger crowd, who will enjoy this as a first dip in the mire of deeper philosophy while still enjoying a nice dose of relatable drama (even if it seems somewhat cheesy and manipulative to the more jaded cynics among the viewers, like myself). Personally, I found it tedious and shallow at once.

Writing (story and characters):

There are huge flaws with the writing, which could have been condensed to a third of the length and end up as a tightly packaged movie that would have truly wowed the viewers, but instead it has filler. And by that, I can honestly say there are maybe a hundred minutes of actual content if you drop the unecessary characters, irrelevant subplots, and all the things which go nowhere. Most of it has no influence over character development, the underdeveloped and childish philosophical points, and the lame psychology.

I get it. Death and stuff is cool and edgy. Damn it Death Parade, you just had to explore the vast oceans of possibilities rather than wade in the piss-puddle kiddy pool of it. The plot, when you remove the unimportant bits, is a story about one and a half characters and facing the consequences of death, something which is done better and explored in a deeper way in Saw (yes, the cheesy horror movie). Instead, we get repetitions and variations, but even they are not really important since they have nothing to do with it beyond the first one; the rest just add volume.

The characters are bad. Seriously, the best characters are all ones that appear in one episode and maybe make a cameo later. The character development is a joke, forced, badly handled, and badly written. For all that, it exists, and the characters are only mildly loathesome. Of course, that doesn't make up for their stupidity. For a show that tries to be mature and deals with these subjects it is absolutely unforgiveable.

It's insulting, taking a premise that's edgy and pretentious, and then executing it in a juvenile manner. It's like making a burnt hamburger out of wagyu. This wouldn't have been too bad, if Hell Girl wasn't already a thing where instead of pretending to play at philosophy they just gave us the edgy and pretentious bits in a juvenile way but executed better. Words are not sufficient to express my wrath at this fact.

Art (animation and sound):

Starting from the end: the artwork is great. Not quite excellent, but definitely well above the standard. The choice of palette for both the audio and video is spot on, and matches the themes from the writing. This is the reason so many people loved this show despite it not being nearly as good as the hype around it suggested.

Give Madhouse props, they know their art. My main issue is way the show is set in more or less one room for the most of it, and it gets rather dull. The character designs are good, but not quite iconic, the animation is pretty smooth when it needs to be, and I really like some of the recurring themes. Death Parade isn't Madhouse's best work, but it's very strong visually. Also, there are some gorgeous backgrounds. That should go without saying.

Everyone sing along to the opening theme. Yeah, it doesn't fit the show at all, but I'll give credit where it's due: it is arguably the best opening theme in anime history. Other than that, the audio is well done. The voice acting is good, fits the writing and animation. The sound effects are nice and professionally executed. Still, while far above average, it didn't quite wow me enough to really stand out.

Artwork is Death Parade's saving grace. It brings it life (ha) that is sorely needed. A lot of the (major) flaws of the writing are hidden behind "ooh shiny". I suppose that's the reason this show was so popular, and then everyone forgot about it.

Overall:

I don't really like Death Parade, but it's aimed very squarely at the teen demographic which I haven't been a part of for a while now. Some good editing, and keeping it down to half a season, and it would have been amazing. It isn't. Thoroughtly forgettable, you should probably skip it unless you're looking for some simple philosophy and drama and are under twenty.

I actually thought the anime was good, the reviews on here kind of shocked me. It had been on my to watch list and I wanted something to watch other than a long running anime that I'm still watching. The general synopsis seemed interesting to me because it brought up a different theme that I haven't seen yet in animes.

Story 6/10 - I liked how most episodes had different situations of people who died. I think death parade did well in fiitting in a variety of how people died in 12 episodes. The beggining is great and brings in so many questions which somewhat get answered in the second episode with a little more being answered throughout. However, it did feel like there was no plot build up. I didn't get the usual things that I usually would with other animes, like the problem and climax weren't prevalent, and the ending was out of nowhere. I felt like it wasn't even near the end because of the weird story development. But I did like the ending, it was somewhat fitting. I had higher expectations for the girl protagonist's story though. They kept bringing up the chavvot book and kind of hyped up what they were leading to but it ended in a similar story to the other guests. I also didn't get the whole thing with arbiters being able to judge these dead folks based on how they play games. I get it, the intention was to bring out their fears and how low they would go to hold on to life, but what? It felt unfair, and frankly, the anime kept brought it up so much that it tamed my curiosity for the arugement

Animation 8/10 - Liked the animation. Idk I don't have a particular focus on how the animation is of animes unless it is crazy 

Sound 9/10 - I don't know what other people are saying but I actually really vibed with the opening and outro, more so the opening. It was catchy yea. The outro was also good, both lyrics related to the story and the outro was good at coming when things would start getting good but then it ends and the music starts, it was good. I think the animation helped make the songs better

Characters 5/10 - My least liked thing about death parade, they didn't go deep into the characters, it was like what was the point of them being there. Not much character appeal and barely any character development. I didn't get the flower man at all. Was he the bad guy, god, or just a noisy boss. I get that this is all built on what he thinks they should be and do but what exactly was the point of him being in the anime, no offense lol. I liked the guests a lot, because we got to see them slowly come to and deal with realising they're dead, but I wanted a deeper look at times with them and the arbiters too but I guess it is a 12 ep anime, where there is a limit to how much they can produce. I did really love the subbed va. It was so good, the emotion from each character that cried in death parade felt very real, like it was filled with their experiences and their sorrows, regret and shock.

Death parade is a fun (sad too) anime to watch in a day, the episodes were easy to watch and when I was watching I didn't feel much to stop at it because of the flaws. It was an interesting take on what happens when people die, and showed the altering views of what life means to those who can't experience it and those who have. There were plot holes in it, many in fact. Like why are the elevators used interchangeably, I got confused about who went to the void and who went to reincarnate almost each time judgement had come. Can't they put two people in one elevator if they are both fit to be put there. Why does one go in one elevator and the other go into the next. That limits the chances of the two guests of going to the better place. I think they somewhat answered that but I forgot. And how big is the lowest floor where all the dolls are. Is it just the whole underground. 

Watch death parade if you want to

At the very least, it wasn't a waste of time for me

The anime itself was amazing but some of the character were important to the plot but the character itself wasn't revealed as much as I would have liked. Other than that the anime is very well done and I would recommmend it to anyone.